THE ELECTRIC KITCHEN
Whip up ribs and musubi for Memorial Day
The Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of picnic season, and a local-style picnic wouldn't be complete without musubi and something cooked on the outdoor grill.
In our humble opinion, our former director, Charlotte Kawazoe, makes the best Spam musubi! It was and still is the most coveted dish at potlucks.
She shared her recipe on "The Electric Kitchen" cooking show, where she revealed her secret: She lightly seasons the cooked rice with a mixture of water, mirin, salt and soy sauce. This gives the musubi more flavor and keeps the rice moist and fluffy.
Note that this recipe calls for a double-size musubi mold, available at Longs Drug Stores and Japanese markets. These are twice as long as regular musubi molds. If you're using a regular single mold, cut nori in half and use one slice of Spam at a time.
Charlotte's Spam Musubi
7-1/2 cups rice (10 Japanese rice-cooker cups)
7-1/2 cups water (10 Japanese rice-cooker cups)
2 cans (12 ounces each) Spam
20 large ume (Japanese pickled plum), seeded
10 sheets nori
Furikake nori (Japanese seasoned seaweed mix), for garnish
Benishoga (shredded pickled ginger), for garnish
» Rice seasoning:
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
Wash rice; add water. Cook rice; let stand 15 minutes.
Cut each block of Spam into 10 slices. Fry to desired brownness.
Place cooked rice in large bowl. Combine seasoning ingredients. Sprinkle half of mixture over rice; mix well. Reserve remaining mixture for moistening nori and knife.
Place a sheet of nori on a flat work surface. Place large musubi mold in center of nori. Fill mold one-third full of rice; press down. Spread ume on rice; place two slices of Spam over ume. Add more rice to fill mold; press again. Remove mold and wrap nori around musubi, sealing edge with a small amount of mirin mixture.
To serve, cut musubi in half (for parties, cut into fourths). Garnish with furikake and benishoga. Makes 20 musubi.
Approximate nutritional analysis, per musubi (using half the mirin mixture): 390 calories, 11 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 550 mg sodium, 62 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 9 g protein
For the grill, make something simple and tasty, such as Pulehu Ribs. And as the grill's already fired up, grill some fresh vegetables, too -- just cut up bell peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, onions or more into large chunks, or use fresh asparagus spears. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, toss together, then grill to desired doneness.
Pulehu Ribs
5 pounds beef back ribs
2 tablespoons Hawaiian salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
Score ribs. Combine remaining ingredients; rub into meat. Let stand 1 hour.
Grill 7 to 10 minutes, then turn and grill 5 minutes more, or until done. (Meat may also be broiled, 2 inches from heat.) Serves 6.
Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 900 calories, 75 g total fat, 30 g saturated fat, 200 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,000 mg sodium, 1 g carbohydrate, no fiber or sugar, 53 g protein
Hawaiian Electric Co. presents this weekly collection of recipes as a public service. Many are drawn from HECO's database of recipes, accessible online at
www.heco.com.